The Path Ahead
by Tenoba
Summary: Shepard died saving the Citadel. The crew of the SVV Normandy parted ways. The Reapers were forgotten. But when a young mercenary finds something ancient and sinister and learns of an impending war, he seeks to find a way to stop it before any great sacrifice must be made. But who could he ever convince without evidence? Combination of both OC & existing characters. Post-ME1.
1. Prologue

It was a beautiful service. Upon a hill on Earth. Buried on his home planet, of course. Wouldn't want it any other way. It was just how a Lieutenant Commander's funeral should be. The whole twenty one gun salute, and everything. John Shepard was laid to rest that day in front of a large gathering of friends and comrades. He was dead. He had died a hero. Perhaps the greatest hero that the galaxy had seen in some time. He'd saved the Citadel and the Council alongside it, giving his life in the process, as well as taking Saren's. He exchanged his life to give the galaxy a chance, and for that, he'd go down in history.

His knowledge of the Reapers, however, was buried with him. None of his companions had the information that he had had, nor the ability to do anything about it. So that was it, it seemed. Whatever happened, would happen. Shepard was honoured by the Council, but his wishes were not. They still lacked confidence in his Reaper theory. It seemed nothing could be done to change that.

It had been a month since the battle of the citadel. It had taken a while for the funeral to be organised, and the body to be transported home, what with all the clean-up work following Sovereign's attack. Since then, the Normandy had been handed over to another Captain, and only the human crew members remained. The Aliens were told to leave. So they left.

Wrex disappeared off in to the galaxy. Word had it he was back to his old mercenary work. Others said he'd returned to his homeworld to finally follow Shepard's advice and help his race. Nobody really knew. Nobody could find him and tell him when or where Shepard's funeral was. Yet he could still be seen observing from a distance on the day it happened.

Garrus had gone to Omega, where he'd apparently been involving himself in low-scale vigilante work. Knocking a few heads for the greater good, earning himself some credits in the process. Win win, from his perspective.

Tali had a lot of problems. She didn't have anything to show for her pilgrimage, and even if she did, she had no money, or friends, now that she was cut off from the crew of the Normandy. She ended up worse than she had been beforehand, as the Alliance took all research from her before they kicked her off. She ended up on the Citadel, doing cheap Engineering jobs in an attempt to raise enough funds to be able to find a suitable gift for her pilgrimage. She didn't ask anyone for help at the funeral though. She felt she needed to earn it herself, even though she'd been robbed by the Alliance.

Liara had returned to her research work, resuming her life of travel through the galaxy in search of Prothean ruins to add to her now fairly deep knowledge of them.

None of them really maintained contact, other than the odd message to eachother, which was odd, as they all considered eachother great friends after everything they had been through together. It seemed that without Shepard, the centrepiece, it would not work.

That was the last day that they were all together - Ashley, Tali, Wrex, Liara and Garrus... and, in a way, Shepard, too.

But Shepard was gone. And the Reapers were still coming. But nothing could be done to remedy that. So it seemed.


	2. The Facility

Gabriel Delaney was quite a young man. Twenties. Conventionally attractive – unkempt brown hair, striking blue eyes and a healthy body. He'd inherited his fitness and good looks from his father, and his father before him. All military men. Men of the Alliance. Gabriel had followed in their footsteps for some time. He'd fought for the Alliance. But he'd resigned a few years ago. Took up a new occupation. One involving similar skills, but quite different motives. And here he was, aboard his full time home and workplace.

The Red Fog – a small ship. Officially, it was a trade vessel. One pilot, one co-pilot. That's all it took to get it around the galaxy. On board, however, were around twenty people – for the ship was no simple trade vessel. It was a pirate vessel. A mercenary vessel. Everyone on the ship had a gun, and new exactly how to handle it. They had ranging skillsets. Some were simply gunmen whose fire would both protect the ship and help the crew on missions. Others were engineers – or reconnaissance. It was quite a variety of skill.

Their crimes were, for the most part, victimless. They didn't see themselves as evil. Whenever they did work within Citadel space, it was typically smuggling – which was tricky with all of the security measures, but definitely worth it. They payload it gave made the effort seem insignificant. When they worked out in the Terminus Systems, which was much more common, they usually did mercenary work. Sometimes they would raid pirates, or scavenge abandoned places that nobody else dared touch. But they never took from innocents. Even if that would be easier. Most had morals as strong as any man. Gabriel was no different.

Gabriel was seated in the armoury, a small room where all the guns and armour was kept. His assault rifle was laid out on a workbench and he was making small modifications. They were soon to arrive at an abandoned facility on some remote planet. It was the sort of place where valuable things were often waiting to be claimed. Chances were, unless there was some sort of security system in order, the facility had probably already been stripped bare. So either they were going to turn up and face a few dozen mechs, or they'd find nothing. So Gabriel had to be prepared.

Across the room, Soku, Gabriel's closest friend was seated, suiting up for the mission ahead. "So, know anything about this facility?" He piped up in his usual, low and raspy voice.

Soku Draon was a Drell. His kind were scarce in these parts – an uncommon species, and a fascinating one in many ways. His skin was a pale yellow, lacking the green tone that was most common among his race. He was cunning, savvy, and was far more street smart than Gabriel, having practically raised himself due to a broken home. He'd been a criminal all of his life – a thief from a young age, and a killer by his teen years. He had took the first chance he had to get off the rock that he called his homeworld, and it just happened to be on a smuggler ship. He liked it so much that he never left. Or that's what he told Gabriel. He seemed content, but never truly happy. But that was enough for him.

Gabriel had befriended him three years ago. Back when he was still a soldier under the banner of the Systems Alliance. They met and conversed over a drink in a club in the Citadel. Soku spoke of his adventures as a smuggler and mercenary, his lack of restraints, and he convinced Gabriel that life as a marine was not what he really sought out. It was the adrenaline it gave him and the journeys it entailed. Both of which could be attained in a much better way, alongside Soku and his crewmates. Only a month later, Gabriel had resigned and joined the crew of the Red Fog.

"Not really. Just the usual, I'm guessing." Gabriel replied. "Probably going to find nothing. But it's always worth a look. Especially when it's on a remote system like this one."

Soku nodded. "I don't know. I haven't been told much. But apparently it's completely untouched. Only just uncovered in the last couple of days. Was concealed up good. Allegedly, it's inside of a mountain, hidden from sight. Some company extracting resources blew a hole right in the side of it. Awakened some unfriendly mechs, or something. Got scared off."

"Inside a mountain?" Gabriel looked away from his gun to peer at his friend. "That's a new one. I guess they had something to hide."

"Something valuable, hopefully," Soku nodded.

Just then, the doors to the armoury slid open and Ticus entered. A turian. Calm and cold. This was his ship. He was the boss. But he was no tyrant. He was not like the commanding officers in the Alliance. He treat his men as equals. But there had to be some form of control on a vessel with so many dangerous individuals, so they took orders from Ticus.

"Okay, you two," Ticus spoke with a monotone drawl. "If you're not ready, get ready. We'll be there in fifteen minutes and we need to be in and out as fast as possible. We're not going to wait for you to tie your shoelaces."

Both Gabriel and Soku gave their boss a slight nod, and he turned and left. Nothing else was said as the ship descended towards the planet's surface.

* * *

The planets surface was unremarkable. Arid deserts, occasionally interrupted by a mountain range. Nothing grew here. It was no surprise that there was not a single settlement in sight. Of course, there was one hidden within the mountain. But the fact that there was nothing else here begged the question - what was so special about the mountain? Gabriel assumed it was something, and felt pretty lucky, seen as he and his crew would be the ones to get whatever it was.

All of the crew, bar three, who stayed aboard on Ticus' orders to watch the ship, stepped off of the Red Fog and looked ahead at the mountainside. Soku's intel was accurate - there was a small crater that seemed to reveal a tunnel. The group approached it and peered inside, Ticus taking the lead. He was not afraid of whatever was inside. He could have easily ordered someone else to take the front, but he shared the same courage that everyone on the team had. They were all brave. None of them would have come to an abandoned facility if not.

They gathered around the crater. Ticus tilted his head and looked inside. It was not like most facilities they had encountered - it was very old. The metal was so old it looked like rock. There were no mechs inside. Without a word, Ticus slid down in to the tunnel and proceeded, the group following him with caution.

After some time, Ticus halted, and so did the rest of the group behind him. He approached a door at the end of the corridor and opened it slowly, revealing a large circular room, many inactive computers lining the walls.

"Jackpot." One of the Humans smirked.

"Jackpot?" a Batarian huffed. "All I see is dead consoles."

"Search them," Ticus ordered. "See if you can get any of them online. Take anything you can, and get out of here. Looks like this is the only room in the whole facility."

"What a waste of time," a Krogan in the group spat. "Let the engineers deal with this... there are no mechs here!"

"Fine, go back up to the entrance, cover it. Make sure there is nothing up there waiting for us," Ticus replied. "I'll remain down here with anyone that _wants to help._" His words were venomous. But meant little. The Krogan shrugged and headed back up the tunnel, most of the group following him, leaving six or so down in the room. Gabriel and Soku remained, standing beside Ticus, who observed, as the three Engineers worked away at getting the computers back online.

They were there for around half an hour, and nothing. "Right," Ticus grimaced. "Let's get out of here. We're not getting anything out of this place. It's dead."

Not one of the group noticed the one single light that was on in that room. The tiny, flickering red light. They also failed to notice that it went black as soon as Gabriel walked past it.


End file.
